Digging
by AnnieLeigh
Summary: Like a madman trying to dig through rock, she dug in Kana, searching for a grain of proof that he, like most others, was complex and wonderful.


Lillian, like many girls, was not immune to a handsome face.

Entering Konohana, it was obvious that she was green as the day was long. Undaunted in her inexperience as she was, the young girl walked strange streets and passed new faces without a comfort of familiarity in sight. She became vulnerable and lonely in a village brimming with friendships, rivalries, and connections running generations deep.

Her savior came in the form of a swaggering, outspoken, and yes, handsome man a few years her senior in age but many years her junior in mentality. Valuing only horses, and above all his favored Hayate, he was kind but opinionated, warm but close-minded.

Lillian's farm was a short walk from Kana's stable, home, and shop. He was, on an almost daily basis, her first form of human interaction on any given day and the last face she saw upon returning home at night. He invited her to see his prized horses, to meet his beloved Hayate, and to partake in snatches of friendly conversation between their equally heavy workloads. In her initial isolation, Lillian thrived under Kana's every-man personality and his ability to carry a conversation. He was the push she needed to smile at Ayame, play with Ying and Rahi, approach Mako's intimidating form, and indulge Gombe with her small stock of jokes.

It was gratitude that she first felt towards Kana, and even that simple feeling gave way to a friendly affection which he reciprocated.

After more than a year of his pleasantries and their meet ups, Lillian began to ponder her then-dearest friend. It's an accepted fact that everyone has hidden depths, and in her curiosity, she took it upon herself to become more intimately acquainted with Kana in pursuit of his depths.

Unfortunately for both parties, this went awry, as such plans often do.

You see, with such a large amount of feeling between two people, and given the proper setting and conversational topics, love often rears its sometimes welcome and always ugly head. Lillian was a girl of intense emotion and deep thought, quiet nights spent in awe of the stars and life's meaning, art in the form of a hawk stark against a blazing sky. She found beauty in language and saw all people as vessels filled with elaborate thoughts and complicated motives. Kana was of a simpler sort. To him, art was found only in the shine of a horse's eye, its whinny the only music he heard, its gait the only grace he saw. There was little beauty in his life. Lillian was admittedly one of the few objects in which he found beauty; she was an object, though. Nothing more. He was passionate, of course, but his emotional range ended abruptly. His person was one of boisterousness and excitement, and on occasion he would take offense at some slight or another as we all do. He had no need for analytical thinking or appreciation of the powerful mountain mere minutes from his village. Kana was satisfied by his small, unremarkable world.

His world couldn't include Lillian, whose world was always shifting and expanding.

She didn't believe the villagers who saw what was happening between the two - affections building; Kana wasn't totally oblivious to this feeling and Lillian was perfectly aware - who good-naturedly informed her of Kana's simplicity.

Like a madman trying to dig through rock, she dug in Kana, searching for a grain of proof that he, like most others, was complex and wonderful. Their mutual love grew along with her agitation.

On the day she purchased a blue feather from Raul, the shopkeeper handed it over sadly; without speaking, he conveyed his worry and disappointment in the bright girl he'd come to love as his own blood.

It was a last ditch attempt at uncovering what she thought Kana was hiding from the world: an awe-inspiring intelligence, perhaps, or an understanding that no others had accomplished. The feather was preserved between two books in Lillian's house, collecting dust. She wanted the time to be right. It never occurred to her that, quite possibly, the time would never be right.

There came a day when even Kana, in a moment of uncharacteristic perception, forgot himself for a moment and snapped at her.

"What are you searching for?"

The question shocked Lillian. She hadn't realized that she was searching for anything until that moment. An instant later, she finally had the revelation that there might not be something more to Kana.

At this point, the two were as in love as a pair could hope be. Lillian had initially been brought in by Kana's charm and his handsome face, but in her pursuit of his complexities and in the wake of her gratitude toward his friendship, she had truly loved all shades of his person. Kana, however, saw a pretty face, and in his appreciation, he began to regard her as more attractive with each visit. He never could fully appreciate her beyond the appeal of her looks and her goodness as a friend, but he did certainly love her all the same.

After so long in search of a part of Kana that simply didn't exist, Lillian was bewildered. She still loved him, same as he loved her, but she couldn't continue pursuing what she came to think of as a false feeling. Following a week of planning, writing explanatory letters to the dear friends she had made, and slipping the blue feather, now fully covered in dust, under Kana's door, she packed her cart with belongings deemed important and made off in the early hours of one Spring day, similar to the one on which she had arrived to Konohana.

Lillian wasn't the type to pick herself up after a heavy blow. She instead completely removed herself from the situation. Never returning to Konohana, she wandered for some time before settling in an area that she hoped had a dearth of handsome faces but a plethora of thinkers.

Kana was as hurt as a man of his emotional spectrum could be. He kept the blue feather and eventually took to braiding it into Hayate's mane in what was perhaps the most thoughtful act of his younger years. After some time he met another pretty lady and the two fit well. Neither expected so much of each other and they were happy in their simplicity.

Kana proposed to her with a new feather.

The two looked back on their memories with fondness and regret, but that faded quickly. Lillian, jaded by her brief dabbling in romance, never did marry, but she, too, found her happiness in a new village so far from Konohana.

Her first day there, she spoke to each villager with a boldness she had learned from her dearest friend.

* * *

_When I first started playing Tale of Two Towns, I made a beeline towards Kana, but now that I have him at five flowers, I've realized that he's kind of lacking in depth. I kept increasing his flower level because I thought he'd get more interesting, but he didn't at all. This story is the spawn of my broken heart, hahaha. If there are any improvements to be made, please tell me! :]_


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